Walker Parks and Jalyn Phillips speak on competition and roster health
Players and coaches have been raving about how healthy the Clemson football roster is.
With an offseason complete and fall camp underway, the Tigers are in full swing, with just a few weeks until their season opener in Durham, North Carolina against Duke. During their fall camp, the team welcomed back many players who were sidelined with injuries during the end of last season and the spring. Those who were injured are Walker Parks and Jalyn Phillips, who spoke to the media on Friday about their recoveries and the feeling of being back on the field.
Phillips, who dealt with an ankle problem at the end of the season, started all 14 games for Clemson last season. Despite a relatively poor performance from the secondary last season, Phillips hopes to use his experience from his first starting season to help the Tigers grow.
“Experience is everything,” the safety said. “This year I feel like the game will really slow down for me. I can be early on things, anticipate things more, and really be a leader for the defense this year being a second-year starter.”
Jalyn Phillips
Parks, who suffered an ankle injury against NC State last season but played the rest of the year, looks to shake off the cobwebs in his first week of fall camp since having his ankle repaired in the offseason, causing him to miss the spring game. Despite recovering from the injury, the senior offensive lineman believes that he still has a bit to go before reaching 100% again.
“As far as 100%, I mean I’m not sure because we are still on day 7,” Parks said. “Nobody is 100% on day 7, so [I’m] still working in the training room, still doing rehab and, you know, I spent the whole summer working on it.”
However, the two are both very confident in their position groups, where they believe their positions will be much better than last season.
For Parks, in a group where it takes a while to develop and sharpen skills, he believes that the group that he has with him has reached its potential.
“You know, most of the time, when you look at the offense line, it’s a development position,” he added. “It takes 3-4 years to get guys ready and we are finally at the point.
In one of the weaker spots on the defense last season, Phillips believes that the secondary is exactly where it should be.
“Our DBS, we are loaded, first team, second team and third team,” he added. “Anybody could go out there and the standard doesn’t change. So I think the guys really know that they are really buying into what it takes to get to the level where we are trying to go, so it’s special to see.”
With the fifth-year senior seeing new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley’s Air Raid offense at the forefront, Phillips likes what he is seeing on the opposite side of the ball.
“They are doing a little bit of everything,” Phillips said. “I feel like our offense is special. They’re a really fast offense, you guys will see it soon.”
Meanwhile, Parks sees a couple of differences in Riley’s offense compared to former OC Brandon Streeter’s offense when it comes to the offensive line.
“The biggest difference right now is the offensive line setting the pass protection,” Parks detailed. “Last year we would have calls preset, and we could change them here and there on the defense, but now it is solely on the offensive line.”
Walker Parks
With both players who spoke to the media entering some of their final seasons at Death Valley, the two are excited to get back on the field and give it everything that they have while they are still playing at a collegiate level.
“I’m just extremely grateful to be back out there and be running around with my friends again,” said Parks.
Phillips, who decided to return for his fifth season in January, is hungry to get the Tigers back to the promised land.
“I wanna come back leave it all on the field and give it all I got,” Phillips added. “I want to give it one more shot at it.”
